A federal judge ordered the release of an anti-Israel protester who helped organize riots and protests at the University of Columbia on Wednesday.
Authorities with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder, earlier this month in Vermont. U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered his release following a hearing Wednesday morning.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Mahdawi declared in a message to President Donald Trump as he left the courthouse.
According to the court filing, Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia in the fall of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack. He founded the group with Mahmoud Khalil, another pro-Palestinian activist who was detained by federal immigration officials under the Trump administration earlier this year.
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Vermont’s two U.S. senators, Bernie Sanders, an independent, and Peter Welch, a Democrat, as well as the state’s sole member of Congress, Rep. Becca Balint, a Democrat, condemned Mahdawi’s arrest on April 14.
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The three issued a joint statement saying Mahdawi walked into an immigration office for “what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process” and was instead “arrested and removed in handcuffs by plainclothes, armed individuals with their faces covered.”
Mohsen Mahdawi, center, was released from ICE custody on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“These individuals refused to provide any information as to where he was being taken or what would happen to him,” the statement alleged.
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“This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal,” it continued. “Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.”
As a student at Columbia, Mahdawi was an outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and organized campus protests until March 2024.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had called for the release of Mahdawi, an anti-Israel student leader at Columbia University, after his arrest. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images AP Images)
According to a court filing, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. He recently completed coursework at Columbia and was expected to graduate in May before beginning a master’s degree program there in the fall.
Fox News’ Peter Pinedo and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
